Google music background data

The new app seems to be doing something in the background. I haven't streamed on cellular. I need to figure this out, I don't have unlimited data!

What ya think?

Edit: this screen shot is after one day. Hopefully it was a one time deal with syncing or something. But I am usually on wifi so it seems like a lot of background data after I left home and hadn't used the app.

Is this before or after the update that was released yesterday? When I updated yesterday, the app stopped working. It crashes every time I try start it up. So frustrating since I already signed up for their all access service.

I am noticing a ton of data usage as well...not quite sure why. I assumed that Google Music would work the same as it did before with my own music uploaded into the cloud; only this is there music. Anyone have an opinion on this.

well...I used 53mb background data and 10 mb foreground..and only streamed 4 songs last night...so 60mb for 4 songs is rather excessive so yeah...something is going on in the background that I dont like.. I also dont have high quality checked and caching over wifi only...Hope they can fix this!!

I have had the same issue. The first time after the update, I took it to the gym and it chewed up 445 MB of data in one hour. Not only was high quality streaming turned off, caching was turned off. I uninstalled the updates, re-installed the app, and the next morning it ate up 107MB in 20 minutes. I have yet to find a cure. It seems that no matter what I do, it downloads gobs of data in the background for no apparent reason. It's a shame, too, because I was ready to fork over $8 a month for All Access. But not if keeps eating data like this.

I ended up checking the option to restrict background data. So far I haven't seen any ill effects from doing so. I will leave it checked until an update is pushed out to fix this problem.

In my experience, disabling background data will not allow music to stream while the app is in the background (i.e. when I am using a different app and want to listen to music or play music while the screen is off).

Love this app but I've gone through 1.4GB on cellular data for about 30 songs. This is the third day I've used it and my cap is 3GB. Pretty crazy. Oh and I have 24 days left on this months data 0.o going over even if I stop now lmao.

In my experience, disabling background data will not allow music to stream while the app is in the background (i.e. when I am using a different app and want to listen to music or play music while the screen is off).

So far I haven't found that to be the case with Google Music. With the option to restrict background data on, I was able to listen to music (in the radio section) on 3G and use other applications at the same time and the music kept streaming.

So far I haven't found that to be the case with Google Music. With the option to restrict background data on, I was able to listen to music (in the radio section) on 3G and use other applications at the same time and the music kept streaming.

That's really interesting. Whenever I restrict background data and then start a song in Play Music (usually on Radio), and then switch out to use another app, I always get this notification, usually within less than a minute.

That's really interesting. Whenever I restrict background data and then start a song in Play Music (usually on Radio), and then switch out to use another app, I always get this notification, usually within less than a minute.

I was wondering about this as well...It seems that it may or may not work.

My deal is that I use Play Music daily, before the update, and was only about 1 GB into my data usage at 15 days into my billing cycle (according to my phone). I thought this was pretty good considering it is all streaming and I was just etching into a 1/3 of my allowance halfway through my billing cycle...and then I started streaming the radio and my data usage exploded; all over the place. I stopped using the radio and went back to listening to my own albums that I uploaded to Play and everything was fine again, as in my data usage was back to normal.

The same thing happened to my brother, borrowedchief a few posts up, and the only thing our dumb brains can come up with is that it is the constant caching. Tomorrow, on my train ride to work, I am going to turn the caching off and use the radio and see what happens.

Originally Posted by regression

I ended up checking the option to restrict background data. So far I haven't seen any ill effects from doing so. I will leave it checked until an update is pushed out to fix this problem.

I'm seeing the same data usage as the rest of you. Before All Access, streaming my uploaded music used maybe 2-3G data over my billing cycle. I use Play Music 2-3 hours / day. Full Access is using that over 4 days. I've unchecked highest quality. Restricting background data, once the app is put into background while another app is used, I lose streaming. I also find this happening when the screen is turned off.

I'm hoping that Google will fix this. I left Spotify because of better content on Google. I have unlimited data, but I'm going to find out soon, how unlimited.

I have been using Google Music for about a week now and I am chomping through the data streaming my playlists. Be careful. If you are on a tiered plan.. It doesn't seem to play nice lol. I stream about 4hours a day at work.

Just curious if the "restrict background data" is a setting in the music app or a general setting for your phone? I can't find it anywhere in the new Google Music app (doesn't mean it isn't there as I've often discovered).

The problem I am having (which I assume is connected to this data issue somehow) is that the stream constantly cuts out now on my phone and sometimes even on my laptop. Before the update I could stream music anywhere at any time even if my data connection wasn't at its best. Now I can't get through a song without it cutting out several times. I've noticed that if I stream music I have uploaded myself, it works just fine, but when I create a radio station or try to stream music I have recently added to my library from Google Play, it cuts out. I am cacheing and streaming high quality and am not worried about data usage necessarily right now, I just want to get through a whole song. Any thoughts?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before but im trying to decide between google music and spotify.
Do the songs you add to a playlist still use data when listening to that playlist? Or does it only use data when listening to the radio?
I saved a playlist and when playing it in my car some songs cut out as if I didnt have service in the area?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before but im trying to decide between google music and spotify.
Do the songs you add to a playlist still use data when listening to that playlist? Or does it only use data when listening to the radio?
I saved a playlist and when playing it in my car some songs cut out as if I didnt have service in the area?

If you pin the playlist to your device it won't use any data after that.

I recently went All Access with Google Music as well and found the HUGE data usage.

I use 3G WatchDog Pro on my phone to measure data usage so I knew straight away there was a problem.
What I noticed is that Google Music is uploading while streaming, it uploads about 90% of the download usage. This is helping to blowout data usage as most mobile companies count uploads and downloads.

After a few days of use I went to see my data usage at the mobile company website and was happy to see that around half the data used was classed as "Social Network Data" which means on my plan it was free.

Any one know why it is uploading almost as much as it downloads while streaming?

Still a great app though, I have been preloading albums at home and work. I miss the radio while commuting though.
Switched from Spotify and so much happier.